Love and the Emperor | Recap and Review

Li Xia enters a video game but she doesn't become a princess or anything royalty. She's a lowly maid who's about to be married off to an old eunuch.
Notable Actors/Actresses
He Hua: Li Xia

Luo Yi Hang: Yang Mo
Chinese Title
手可摘星辰
The Hand Can Grab Stars

Genres: Period, Romcom, Palace, Fantasy, Period Romcom

Network: MangoTV

Year: 2020
Episodes: 12/24

[Dropped]


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Mini Recaps

[Ep1] Li Xia's boss breaks her heart. She enters a VR game system and becomes a maid of a bratty consort. The consort punishes her to be betrothed to a eunuch. She wants to leave the game, but she can't find the way out.

[Ep2] She jumps into the lake because that's the way out of the game, but there's a technical error and she almost drowns. Yang Mo saves her (again). To thank him for saving her, she promises to make him food every single night from now on. He loves that idea. She mistakes him as a eunuch, he's actually the Emperor.

[Ep3] Li Xia is saved by a timely Royal Edict prohibiting servants to be married to eunuchs. However, she's almost punished to death by the consort for walking in on her and the Emperor's brother, having an affair.

[Ep4] General Fan Ru Xiang likes General Jie Qing Shu (the Emperor's brother). She gets jealous. The evil Consort uses her jealously to punish Li Xia. LX suffers another series of spanking. She's late yet again to make food for the eunuch/emperor.

[Ep5] Yang Mo using his Emperor identity saves LX from a fiery fire and catches Consort redhanded for scheming against the palace. Jie Qing Shu was not having an affair with her, he only wanted to spy on her.

She dies. But she's got three lives in this video game, now two. Yang Mo had received a prophetic script describing her: there will be a woman named Li Xia; there will be three fateful meetings and she will have special abilities (her three lives perhaps); her presence will bring peace to the palace. To wake her up, she needs a kiss from the Emperor. But it's the Emperor's first kiss. He hesitates, but he does give her his first kiss to her (and she to him as well). Snow White?

[Ep6] She learns he's the Emperor and he promotes her to become the palace's head chef. She's not just liked by the Emperor, Fan Ru Xiang (forcefully) befriends Li Xia as her first female friend.

[Ep7] Now that he's in his real identity as the Emperor, he uses it to his advantage and orders her to unclothe him and sleep with him. She does her best to keep her distance and innocence. The unclothing scene unfolded funnier than expected. I'm used to it being romantic.

I think she captured his heart with her cooking skills. They're having a hotpot. He tells her he has this medicine that can rid her scar (the scar is from the Consort). She's so happy she blurts out she'll cook for him forever. He smiles. But then he murmurs that if he gives her the medication then she wouldn't sleep with him anymore. He then walks away smirking as LX yells at him for lying to her about giving the medication. He's the King. Why can't he just make her his consort? Or Queen? Why go though such roundabout ways? Because this is a drama? Instead she turns to her new best friend, Fan General, who also has the medication. However, she wants her help in winning Jie Qing Shu's love. She sees her past self in Fan Ru Xiang and refuses initially but gives in. Completely unrelated to the story, why are these episodes getting longer? I liked that it was under thirty minutes...

[Ep8] The two get into their first argument over his engagement with another woman. They're both upset; he's mad that she doesn't care; she's jealous but wants to control her feelings in order to not suffer another heartbreak. The next morning they both show up with dark, dark eye bags because they both couldn't sleep. They laugh over breakfast at each other's appearance.

[Ep9] Jie Qing Shu approaches LX and promises to give her his medication too on one condition: to stop helping Fan Ru Xiang. Lol. Later, the Emperor and his betrothed are poisoned. LX saves him by performing mouth-to-mouth. Its preposterous for the onlookers.

[Ep10] Both girls are heartbroken. FRX is coldly rejected by JQS (who probably has a reason) but at least she confessed and tried. LX is heartbroken because she realizes she's in love with YM (Emperor) but she's no match against his betrothed, the princess. She's also upset at herself for not trying. Next morning, the Emperor is smitten to learn that she's jealous but when he tries to appease her, she reacts coldly. She's determined to give up and find a way to return back to her world. I get that the show is trying to explain her defensiveness against the Emperor stems from her heartbreak from the first episode but still it's so obvious he likes her.

[Ep12] It’s an episode of going through thick and thin with the one one you love the most. Personally, I find the betrothed princess much more understanding of the male lead over the female lead. LX is just a simple girl who knows how to cook up some jealousy. As for the secondary love line, LX finally tells RX that JQS actually likes her; he just pushed her away to protect her.

[Ep13]
[Ep14]
[Ep15]
[Ep16]
[Ep17]
[Ep18]
[Ep19]
[Ep20]
[Ep21]

I skipped all of the previous episodes, heh, and watched the below episodes within 2 minutes each. I just wanted to know how this would resolve. 

[Ep22] LX returns to reality but she can't remember what has happened in the video game. The boss (her previous crush) is adamant on deleting the game memory because the game failed. I assume it's because LX couldn't complete the mission to find love and he can't let that result be known. LX had died and used up her three lives to save the Emperor. The Emperor is still in the game but not doing so well. He's devastated at the death of his beloved LX and his health doesn't look too good.

[Ep23] Turns out LX in the game is just in a deep coma. The present day LX teams up with present day JQS and FRX to find a way back in the game. Oh, one more thing, LX and the Emperor are married (I don't think it's official though).

[Ep24] LX returns back to her game, but not as herself. She's become a eunuch. Initially, the Emperor doesn't realize it's her but he finds her oddly familiar. Eventually she does find a way to come back as herself in the video game. Happily ever after. Whaaaaaaaaat. I'm so confused. Did I skip fast forward too much? She's choosing to live in the video game for the rest of her life? How does that work? My ideal ending was for the Emperor to somehow magically show up in the real world and they live happily there.

Remarks

Dropped: Cute but mediocre. If it continued to be silly I might have continued but then midway through it got serious on me and lost its charm. I just don’t find this story too engaging to be this serious. Maybe I’ll check in for the last episode. I’m still curious how she’ll end the video game. I doubt this will pull a Unique Lady move. Maybe the male lead will show up in real life?